Kevin went to The Netherlands on a business trip for a week, during which the boys and I were extremely happy to welcome Gran-Gran to the Menagerie House. I just remembered that I did post about her toy-induced trip to the ER, but really, other than that one bad night, we all had a wonderful visit. Our only complaint is that it was too short, but the good news is that she will return, hopefully for Kiri’s birthday party at the end of March.

Since Kiri is a bit young to care much about the specifics of his party, his brother was happy to step in and take charge of the situation. He was more than happy to instruct Kiri as to the importance of a desirable theme for his party, and he came up with two themes. He couldn’t decide which one, robots (since “Kieran needs to learn about robots”) or food (since Kiri has yet to meet a food he dislikes), was best, so I asserted my maternal rights and picked a Spring theme.

That was partly because I’ve had enough Winter, and partly because I want to make the cake. I’ve gotten all into decorating cookies this winter, and I would like to expand my horizons a bit and try a fancy cake. I’ve had my eye on this bunny cake pan for a while, and with a recent sale at my favorite baking store, Fancy Flours, I was able to finally able to fit it into our budget. I think I will have to make two bunnies for his party, and then possibly I’ll make some egg and baby bunny shaped cookies for the children to take home. I thought it would be cute to make carrot cakes, but they are so moist I don’t know if they’d really make stable 3-dimensional bunnies. I may punt and make one chocolate and one French vanilla, or possibly lemon. Perhaps I will think about how to decorate them and draw inspiration from that. Also, I’d best got on the mission of consulting a calendar and picking a date for the fiesta.

While I’m on a creative segment here, I’ll mention that I have joined Chichimama’s latest knit-a-long. I would love a pair of nice warm mittens, so these will be for me. Since being frugal is so very necessary chic these days, I turned to my stash for yarn and found a nice variegated purple-pink heavy cotton yarn. My only concern is that the colors are so busy that the main artistic point of the mittens, a long cable running from wrist to fingertip, will be hidden. Then again, I want to make this “Just Enough Ruffles” scarf at some point, so maybe I’ll go ahead with the pink and purple first for fun and to get mitten knitting experience, and then pick up a pretty solid color color later to make a second pair of cable mittens and a JER scarf in the same color. I’m almost finished with my gauge swatch and it looks like it’ll be spot on, which rarely happens for me, so clearly the variegated yarn would be quite usable for this pattern. I just have to sew together the sweater I’m working on for Kiri to wear this Spring and then I’m free to make the mittens.

Speaking of creative pursuits, Santa left an easel for Liam this year. He loves to use it on days when he is willing to stay still for a few minutes, and Kiri has taken quite a shine to painting himself. When I chose the word “himself” I didn’t mean it in the literal sense…

..but Kiri took it that way.

The statement, “Kiri, we only paint paper!”

…does not stop Kieran, the All-Surface Painter.

Now, of course, if one is decorating cookies with frosting then one obviously has edible media on  hand…

…and on face. How amazing is that???

But the best part – the most exciting artistic discovery ever…

…is that a loyal dog makes such a huggable canvas!

In other news, we are seeing the beginnings of sibling rivalry these days. It is clear that the boys adore each other. When he is unaware of adult eyes Liam will not uncommonly watch Kiri play for a few minutes and then walk over, give him a big kiss, and whisper “I love you, Kiri K!” And every day at 8:30 A.M. the saddest boy in the world is Kieran. That’s because Liam’s kindergarten starts then and we have to leave him at school for a few hours. As we get into the car, Kieran will point to Liam’s car seat and shout, “Yee-Yee! Yee-Yee! Mommy! Yee-Yee! Now!” (He hasn’t gotten the hang of the “L” sound yet.) And the tears, they flow. On days when Kiri is inconsolable I will turn into the driveway of the house immediately behind the school. It belongs to one of the faculty members, and it affords a good view of the kindergarten play yard where Liam and his classmates are at play. We watch for a few minutes until I am able to calm Kiri enough to make it through the morning.

On the other hand, however, there are loud and screechy daily battles over my lap because neither child will share that spot with the other. And when Kiri misbehaves, Liam is not above reminding me that whatever the crime (large or minute) in question is, well of course, it is most certainly not his doing.

“Mommy, good job cleaning Kiri up. You see, I am old enough to know that painting my face is wrong, wrong, wrong. And Kiri…is not.”"

Point taken, kiddo. Now, enough crowing already.

Valentine’s day is upon us. It’s not a holiday I pay much attention to, but it is a big one with the grade school set. Liam’s class had a Valentine’s Day celebration today. Each child brought in a Valentine of his or her making, and then they had a swap…

..and Liam got to bring home this beauty.

And then, after snack…

…they made heart necklaces from felt and wool roving…

(not the best photo with part of Kiri’s head there, but it shows off the hearts the best of the ones I took)

…and made Valentine’s Day ornaments. I have never seen an ornament like this, and I think it’s gorgeous.

Liam was especially proud of this one since he made all of it himself with the exception of tying the knot on the thread. “I even sewed the ribbon into a loop by myself, Mommy!”

And here it is in its place of honor on our “Valentine’s Day tree.” The boys and I made Valentines and hung them on the tree while whiling away our Snow Day last week.

The Snow Day was also a great time to play with the ferrets…

…get them all rowdy…

…and more than ready for a nap!

This is Pippi enjoying an afternoon siesta.

I’ve spent way too much time on this post already, so I will end it here. These, my friends, have been the highlights of the last couple of Menagerie House weeks. Lots of everyday fun and games about sums it up, and I am not complaining one bit. So come back soon, ya’ll, and I’ll give you a knitting update (with pictures) and a collection of Cute Conversations.

Happy Valentine’s day!

Seriously, folks, Tupperware is the best toddler toy ever, hands down. Here is Kieran stirring ice in a pitcher and pouring it back and forth into a plastic bowl. He amused himself this way for many hours this summer.

Here’s the early summer milestone – learning to climb the stairs. It took him most of the summer, but he can now safely go up and down the stairs at great speed, even on all fours.

All that working and playing makes a guy hungry, thirsty…

..and tired. Nighty-night, Baby!

For a while last spring and into the summer, Liam was quite fond of this guy. I made him a hat just like that of his cartoon buddy, only in Liam’s favorite color, red. It got a lot of wear until the weather became hot; I’m predicting a return to this hat now that it’s cooling down.

A guy’s gotta have wheels. Here’s Kiri at a park attempting to “drive” a climbable truck sized for the pre-school set. He was not quite tall enough to really get into the game.

Kevin had a birthday (40!….ssssshhhhh) this summer. Liam and I made him a cake while Kiri cheered us on from behind a pile of oranges in his highchair. Here’s the chef with his masterpiece. About the only part of the cake that wasn’t 90% Liam-made was the baking part. He did the mixing, the pouring, the frosting, and the decorating.

We spent a fun evening with friends at the fair. Liam is all about pony rides these days, and a fair is a great place to find them.

Child-labor laws? I’m not allowed to force my toddler to mop the floor? But he’s the one who threw lunch there in the first place!

Here’s Liam putting out a pretend fire in a scale-model house. This was a safety demo evening put on by our local volunteer fire fighters.

If you know the Princeton campus, you know this fountain. It used to be strictly verboten to go into the water there, but on this July night we found people and dogs of all sizes wading and splashing. There was even a couple of grad students floating in inner tubes.

Here’s Liam watching a puppy play fetch in the water. Shortly after this picture was taken, we adjourned down the street for ice cream. Evenings like that are what summer is all about.

I’m interrupting this summer-logue for a Random Ferret Picture. This is Pippi, who has developed a ferocious passion for climbing legs.

And here is Houdini, who thinks it is just the funniest thing when Pippi jumps on her from hip-height. Here she is doing the Weasel War Dance that ferrets perform when having lots of fun.

A shot from earlier this week of the boys taking a break from play. If you look closely at the sun angle and the quality of the light, you can tell Summer is pretty much over…

…or just look out the window. It won’t be long until you are seeing photos of the boys in mittens and coats.

Thanks for stopping by, and hopefully you’ve enjoyed these photos from the Menagerie House. Hopefully I’ll be updating more frequently now. Next week we’re off to Walt DisneyWorld, so I’ll have lots of content!

As I walked into the LYS, I saw a cute black and white angora scarf on display. It caught my eye because not only was it cute and fun, but it didn’t look that complicated. I realized it was something I could finish in a reasonable amount of time even with small children shrieking, “Mommy? Mommy? WHY, MOMMY????” several times a second. The pattern was written by one of the owners of the LYS, and if you bought the yarn at the store, you would get the pattern as a freebie. So I decided to give it a whirl.

I’m having trouble getting a good picture of the scarf as the contrast between the black and white is a bit much for my camera, but I’m sure you get the basic idea – the scarf is a lamb. He’s knit from a chunky angora yarn. His head is a triangle, the body is a looong rectangle, and the legs are knit of black and are just a divided rectangle. The ears are round patches knit from the black yarn, while the tail is a rectangle of black yarn. The eyes are two buttons. It is super easy. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll run up and remind myself of the name of the yarn, and I’ll give you the e-mail and phone number of my LYS so you can order the yarn and pattern. (The whole thing came to $20.)

Now I can move onto the sweaters I planned to make for Liam and Kiri. But I have to first finish what Liam calls my “Emergency Knitting”* – he wants a hat like that of one of his cartoon friends. Only in bright red, but definitely with the jingle bell. I think I can find a child’s stocking cap pattern and modify it for this purpose.

So there we are with the Knitting News Update at the Menagerie House. I hope each of you is having a terrific weekend!

* It’s called “Emergency Knitting” because “It’s an emergency, Mommy! I need to have a hat like Noddy’s. It’s really important. And you’re a great mom so I know you can make one.” Nothing like learning to sweet talk at an early age!

I actually love to knit, but it’s been several years since I attempted a project as I felt I had no time to focus on knitting what with chasing children all day long. It turned out that I have no time to attempt a complicated cable-knit pullover – I have one, 90% done, that I started before Liam was born. It’s not a viable project at the moment as each time I work on it I have to sit down in complete silence, reorient myself to the pattern, and I can’t stop in the middle of a row lest I lose count completely. This is what it would look like if I ever finished it.

Now, a smallish project that can be easily picked up for five or ten minutes and put down without worry fit the bill exactly. And it felt good to make something by hand again:

The Fibonacci Bag

I mucked around with the original pattern a bit. The pattern was written using chunky yarn, but I found some inexpensive worsted-weight wool on sale at a craft store, so I bought twice as much yardage as called for and knitted the whole bag with two strands of yarn to mimic a chunky weight. The felting process was interesting since the hot cycle on our machine isn’t terribly hot, but I set it on “heavy-duty” to get as much mechanical action as possible and then ran it through the wash cycle twice. There’s still a bit more stitch definition than I’d like in the finished product, but it’s great for a first try. Now I know if I want to felt another knitted item I need to up the temperature on our hot water wash. Finally, instead of two straps (one on each long side of the bag), I knitted one extra-long one and attached it to the short side of the bag. It runs lengthwise along the bag. I may sew some ribbon just inside the top of the bag in order to be able to securely tie shut the bag, I don’t want to have to replace my wallet anytime soon!

All in all it was a fun project, and now I’m pleased to have rediscovered one of my favorite pastimes. I’ve got a scarf that’s almost finished that I started a couple of weeks ago. I should be able to finish that up over the weekend, and then I am planning to knit Kiri one of these Sunny-Side Up Hoodies. I have some gorgeous royal blue cotton yarn in my stash that would be perfect for a Spring sweater, and I have just enough to make a baby-size garment from that yarn. The Lemur has asked for one of these sweaters as well, and he would like his in a bright red, so that’s my next next project. I think I’ve got enough planned for now!

I’ve been having fun the last couple of weeks being creative and practical all at the same time. Knitting truly is one of those activities that helps ease stress as it involves repetitive, soothing action, but doesn’t occupy so much of my brain that I can’t carry on a conversation or watch a good TV show at the same time. It really is a great hobby.

Thank you, Chichimama, for suggesting the knit-along. If you hadn’t, I would still be sitting around thinking, “One day I’ll have enough time to knit again!” Turns out I do have the time. It just has to be the right project.